This one's for Jack.

Apparently the weather in Waco was nice the whole week we were gone. It was right back up to 109 degrees when we got back. It was so hot that Jack said, "It's so hot it makes me want to move somewhere like New Mexico or Wyoming."

So I'm posting these pictures to remind you what you have to look forward to if you really were seriously thinking about moving somewhere like New Mexico or Wyoming.

This was just a funny set of street signs.

Denver Museum of Science and super cool interactive exhibits not pictured below...

...because they were so fun and we were so busy interacting that we didn't take many pictures, and the ones we did take didn't turn out so great.

I know these pictures of Rose interacting with the life-like wolfs and walruses will console and entertain you.

Elijah loved the cool seed and gourd shaker (an African "shakere" or SHA-ker-eh). He figured out really quickly how it worked. Can't wait til he's a teenager giving me this "yeah, I'm so smart I'm bored" look.

The Garden of the Gods

Ellen, Jack, and Rose's first rock climbing experience was great. They would have kept hiking higher and higher for as long as I would have let them. We were on a schedule, though, and this was a "let's have the kids run/hike their energy out before our next stop" stop.

They're not kidding about the altitude sickness.

This was worth paying for. The kids talked about riding a cog train to the top of Pike's Peak in Colorado before our trip, on the way there, up and down the mountain, throughout the rest of our trip, and they haven't stopped talking about it and asking more and more questions.

We started out with Rose on Jack's lap and Elijah on my lap and through the course of the 30 minute ride all the kids traded places multiple times to get the good views and equal parental time.

When Jack told me to bring jackets for us and I packed our suitcases, the temperature display in my car was at 109 degrees in Texas. I think that's the highest it goes. I couldn't imagine anything cold enough to warrant an actual winter coat. So I packed these jacket that were enough for the rest of our trip, but they weren't really doing the trick in the 40 degree wind at the 14,000+ feet summit. We had plenty of time at the top, but after the kids took a quick look around at the view, I took them all to the restroom and then sat in the cafe/gift shop while Jack took more pictures and really took in the view. I was feeling a little sick anyway, experiencing all the symptoms they tell you about when they're encouraging you to drink lots of water to stave off altitude sickness.

This was right before we got back on the train, and I love how you can see the cogs on the track behind us, along with New Mexico, or maybe that was Kansas, Oklahoma, or Utah. You can see them all from Pike's Peak.

Rose wasn't in the picture because she was having a full-on melt-down. She couldn't even walk in a straight line. I totally understood. It was cold, her head was going in circles, and she was feeling really, really dizzy. She (and I) slept most of the way back down, and then we were fine.

Jack spent days drawing cog wheels and cog tracks after we got home. So fun!

Royal Gorge

The binoculars came in really handy for seeing the bridge, the people and trucks going across the bridge, and the people on the other side of the gorge bungee jumping. We didn't need binoculars to hear them screaming, though.

Ellen wanted to take some pictures, and did a really good job, considering you couldn't see anything looking into the sun.

All the kids and the bridge.

Ellen's work again. Very fun stop.

What happens when you try to take pictures into the setting sun

We stopped at Royal Gorge. (Read: we drove slowly up a winding mountain road to look at a bridge from afar because there was no way we were paying to take our four very small children onto a bridge that sways.)

Just before our trip, Ellen and Jack Jack became very interested in the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. We watched a video about how it was built, and this led to our visiting Waco's own suspension bridge and learning about bridges in general.

The kids can draw a picture and tell you about beam bridges, truss bridges, arch bridges, and suspension bridges, and cable-stayed bridges. So we decided at the last minute to check out the Royal Gorge suspension bridge near Pueblo, Colorado.

It's the highest suspension bridge in the world. That's why it sways.

You can see the Arkansas River below and the set of tracks that takes the Royal Gorge train beneath the suspension bridge.

A couple of days ago at book group someone asked if anyone had seen anything beautiful and terrifying. My sister immediately responded, "The Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge." I had no idea she had even been. And I was even more glad we decided to take advantage of the free view outside the park.

Capulin Volcano National Monument

For the short amount of time we spent in New Mexico, this was one of the most anticipated views of our trip. Jack talked about it all the way there, and then he fell asleep right before we drove by.

I took a bunch of pictures as we were driving by, just in case.

And a picture of Jack, just in case. And I shook his leg and called to him until he opened his eyes. He went right back to sleep.

Sure enough, as soon as he woke up, he said "I can't wait to see the volcano. When are we going to get there?" When I explained that we had already passed it, the disappointed look on his face melted me, and just before he started melting down himself, I passed him the camera and told him we took lots of pictures, and that I even woke him up, and he opened his eyes and went back to sleep. "You got to see it. See? Here are the pictures." He looked skeptical, but then he spent the rest of the afternoon asking to see the pictures again.

Not bad for an inactive volcano.

Cadillac Ranch

Where have you brought us, Daddy? What are those shiny things sticking up out of the ground? Can I use a can of spray paint, too?

"Sorry about the car, Mom. I guess things got a little out of control." I can just hear Rose saying that about 14 years from now.

Cars is still one of Jack's favorite movies. All the mountains in the background of Radiator Springs are shaped like Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.

The kids loved seeing the colorful cars and adding their own graffiti with a permanent marker. We didn't realize everyone there would be using spray paint, and offering us their half-used cans. They must have felt sorry for the kids with their little markers.

Plainview

We love visiting Grandma and Grandpa Starks!! The kids love Jack's grandparents, and we had such a fun time while we were at their house.

We saw our first rain in months while in Lubbock, and the kids were in awe of this beautiful garden. I should have let Jack Jack take a bite right out of that bell pepper.


Ellen spent the rest of the afternoon polishing off these tomatoes she picked.


Thanks for letting us stay with you!

I'm finally getting into documenting mode.

Lubbock

Recently we spent a weekend in Lubbock, where we stayed with cousins, played in backyards and in driveways with sand and chalk, ate delicious sausages at a backyard barbecue, visited with friends, crashed a ward breakfast at our former bishop's house, visited some more, went to church, and saw many, many friends we love and miss.

Despite Jack constantly reminding me to get out the camera, the only pictures we got in Lubbock were of the kids playing at Wagner park.

This is the reason we even have pictures: Jack was taking them.

Elijah was resting. All the traveling, the altitude, new faces, sleeping in different places...

Actually, it was just his nap time.

More on the way...

Crafty girls

Ellen spent hours cutting, coloring, and taping paper. I had no idea what she was making, and she kept telling me it was very important that she finish it before our friends came over so she could show it to them.

I'm pretty stingy with scotch tape, and it seemed to me she was using a very excessive amount. I told her she could do just fine with a glue stick. I would find a pile of various cut-out shapes of pink paper colored all over with polka dots in random places where she was saving it to work on, and wonder when she'd lose interest and everything would end up in the trash.

Then one day our friends were over playing and Rose came out wearing this:

She came to ask me for some scotch tape to tape her wing strap in the back so it would stay on. So cute.